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Tuesday, 24 February 2015

Community Court Live … 6 Months On

byEloise Peabody-Rolf

In the 6 months since going live on 12 September 2014, the
Hampshire Community Court have been busy !
(NB for more on how I got
involved, the set up of the scheme etc -
please see my earlier PP blogs).

Over 30 hearings have now been held covering a variety of
offences, including possession and use of drugs, antisocial behaviour, ‘sexting’
and bullying. We’ve also developed our
hearing formats, using the experience of cases to improve and tweak our
processes.

From the follow up reviews at 1 and 3 months (progress will
also be checked for each case at 6 and 12 months intervals), the great news is
so far none of the respondents have re-offended, positive changes have been
made in respondents lives, and we’ve received good feedback from many involved
in the process - the victims, respondents and their parents and teachers.

As the Community Court is a new model for youth justice
being trialled in Gosport and Fareham,
there are many people interested in our progress. Our newsletter is widely read (even as far as
Japan !) and we have hosted visitors who
are influential in youth and restorative justice.

From a Community Court perspective, there is added pressure
when we have visitors, as we want to do our
best for the people referred to us, but
it’s also important to explain what we do to our visitors and answer their
questions as best as possible. The
volunteers in the Community Court greatly appreciate the interest being shown
in the pilot and the benefits this approach can bring to young offenders and
their victims. For a visitor to travel and take time out of their day to come
and see what we’re doing, shows a level of interest already, and at the end of
the meeting we welcome their
constructive feedback.

On November 26
Martin, an advisor to the Mayor of London 's Office for Policing And
Crime (MOPAC) to meet with the Community Court team, the deputy PCC, Mark Walsh
and his senior officers, plus a number of parents . A mock hearing was run to demonstrate the
processes the Community Court team have developed and now routinely use. Martin told us the Mayor’s team is keen to
learn from the pilot’s experiences, as they are looking to follow our lead and
deploy a similar scheme in London, so are watching us closely !

On February 3rd we had two visitors : Marion, a
senior Police advisor and a board member from the Ministry of Justice’s Youth
Justice Board for England and Wales (YJB); and Amanda, who has served as an Inner London
Youth Court Magistrate Member of the Metropolitan Police Authority, and has
extensive experience of the voluntary sector. Following the cases they observed, both Marion
and Amanda gave very positive feedback regarding the maturity and sensitivity
the members of the peer court demonstrated during the hearings, plus the
significant potential benefits they saw in ‘Community Courts’ and the
contribution they could make to youth justice processes in the UK.

A week later, Garry
Shewan, the Assistant Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, and ACPO (Association of Chief Police
Officers) lead for Restorative and Community Justice, visited. Garry was one of the judges at the Suzy
Lamplugh Awards Eloise Peabody-Rolf and PC Mark Walsh attended at the end of
last year, where they met briefly. Garry
is a passionate advocate of restorative justice, and expressed a keen interest
in visiting Fareham to find out more about the pilot, particularly how we use
restorative approaches in our hearings, and how we involve the voice of the victim
and community. During his evening with
us, Garry shadowed the Peer Panel throughout the hearing. Afterwards he gave us some candid feedback,
and said he was impressed with the team and the process we have developed and
are running. He gave us a great
compliment in a tweet following his visit :
‘amazing young people thinking restoratively’.

As for my perspective - I am finding the live hearings very
rewarding. My involvement is building my
confidence in forming my own opinions and judgements on the cases and their
issues, and debating these with the team. It’s also a great opportunity to develop my
communication skills, I frequently take the role of chair or advocate in
proceedings, and enjoy working with the team, victims and respondent, although
find some cases can be quite challenging emotionally. As a team we find we have to be prepared to
be flexible in our approaches depending on the personality and attitudes of our
respondents and victims – ‘one size’ certainly doesn’t ‘fit all’!

Being of a similar age to many of the respondents I do find
helps me to relate to them as a peer, and I hope being dealt with by our team,
rather than an authoritarian figure such as a judge, is helping them understand why they find themselves
before the Court and the potential effect their actions could have on their
lives. From my experience so far, I
strongly believe Community (or Peer) Courts applied appropriately, have a significant
benefit to offer young offenders, victims and our judicial processes. With
the interest being shown in our activities, it’s great to feel what we are
doing is being taken seriously and may influence future decisions.